The colour green
by hollyhobbit101
Summary: To Severus Snape, green is so much more than just a colour.
**A/N: I don't actually ship Snily, but I thought of this idea whilst listening to some Harry Potter themed music and it kind of became something I couldn't ignore. I hope you like it!**

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The colour green

The first thing he loved about her was her eyes. As green as the grass and more, they reminded him of warm summer's days playing together in happier times. They sparkled like emeralds when they caught the sun and turned as dark as the leaves in the forest when clouds and rain rolled in. He could stare into those beautiful green eyes all day, for they were always so full of warmth and friendship, the things he lacked at his house. House, not home. That place could never be home to him. It was the green eyes he lost himself in that came to represent his home. And so much more besides.

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It wasn't her bright hair that caught fire in the sun which first caught his attention. Nor was it the sound of her sweet melodic voice that sailed over the fence towards him. It was the brilliant green of her eyes that lit up when she smiled. He loved making her smile, if only to see her eyes come alive with joy. She always smiled those days. No longer. Like so many other things in Severus Snape's life, that smile is a distant memory.

He doesn't even remember the last time he felt joy.

* * *

Students joke about him locked away in the dungeon all the time. They laugh about his hooked nose and greasy hair. They complain about his cold and cruel demeanour.

He wasn't always that way. But very few remember ten or more years ago when Snape talked and laughed and smiled just like everyone else. Most of them have forgotten that person over the years. Sometimes it feels like he's forgotten it himself.

* * *

He resented everything that reminded him of her. Everyone supposed Gryffindor was the receiver of his ire because Slytherin were rivals, but it was more than that. Gryffindor was her house. Hers, but not his. She should have been in Slytherin with him, muggle born or not. It was this that first tore the once inseparable pair apart.

He resented the red headed Weasley children for their hair as bright as hers had once been. He despised all light and warmth because the little that had been left in his life had died with her that Halloween night.

Most of all, though, he hated the boy with the black hair and oh so green eyes.

* * *

The first thing he hated about him was his eyes. As green as the grass and more, they reminded him of his dead love and the coldness of the days that followed. If only he had inherited none of his mother's features, then maybe he could dismiss the boy better. Certainly, he received Potter's hair and his arrogant temperament, but Snape could not ignore the eyes that shone out in stark contrast to the raven hair.

It was like seeing a ghost, looking into those eyes. As much as the boy exuded James, Lily also radiated out like a star in the vast blackness of space. That was why Snape had stared at Harry during the feast at the start of the year. He looked into those eyes and suddenly he was a young boy in her back garden again as she smiled at him, watching her eyes sparkle in the light of the sun.

* * *

It was torture to walk into class each day to see her staring up at him through the eyes of her son. For Harry was her son to Snape. Never arrogant, idiotic, conceited James Potter's son. Always quiet, sweet, kind Lily.

Perhaps that was why Snape was always so much harder on the boy than the rest of the students. He was Lily's son and only succeeded in reminding him of her every day. It was like a million little paper cuts that never healed over.

* * *

For six years, Snape watched the boy grow to be more like his mother every day. It hurt him in his heart to see Lily and yet never be able to talk to her again. Many people believe he doesn't have a heart, or at least not much of one, but how wrong they are.

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Severus Snape was struck down in the Battle of Hogwarts. Killed by a snake to serve to greed of others. A fitting end for such a man, some thought. Others thought his death was unjust and that he did redeem himself in the end. Only three people were present at the end, and none wished to speak of it to anyone.

To Snape, though, he died not with three people surrounding him, but with one. It was not Harry Potter who knelt before him but Lily Evans. Her smile lit up the dark room and her hair cascaded loose over her shoulders in a waterfall of flame. And her eyes. They sparkled and glittered with laughter and they pierced the fog that had clouded Snape's life for 16 years. They pulled him back into the light for a moment and he felt joy - true joy - for the first time in far too long.

He reached to take her hand but she drew back. _Soon,_ her eyes seemed to say. She faded out of view then, and her son took her place once more. For once, as Snape stared into those green eyes he felt no hate within him.

 _"You have your mother's eyes,"_ he rasped out. Then Severus Snape took his last breath and died, going gladly to rejoin his lost love once more.

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 **A/N:** **I hope you enjoyed this little piece of mine. I think it went a bit iffy at the end but please tell me what you think. I love to hear your thoughts and criticisms and it really makes my day when I receive a review. Thank you for reading this. Bye!**


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